


The Ballad of Bart Allen

by derryderrydown



Category: DCU - Comicverse, The Flash
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-07
Updated: 2009-12-07
Packaged: 2017-10-04 05:51:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/derryderrydown/pseuds/derryderrydown





	The Ballad of Bart Allen

Bart has thought about telling somebody but Jay's never been much good with the speed force, not really, and Wally's got five thousand other things that he thinks are more important so there isn't really anybody to tell.

There are times when he thinks Joan knows there's something wrong. When she holds him tight and then, just then, for half a second, he can slow down and move at the same speed as everybody else, but then it starts to hurt and he has to go.

He's pretty certain Jay doesn't know that Bart hasn't spent a whole night in bed for a month now. He used to be able to manage at least an hour's sleep but now he can't even lie still for a minute and it's so easy to just pass through the wall and start running.

It's only when he's running that he feels like himself. He's lonely but at least he's himself.

As he passes through London, running down the Thames just because he can, he sees a woman start to fall off a bridge. On his next pass through, she's nearly halfway down. He slows down a little, even though it hurts, and on his third pass through he catches her and puts her down safely next to Nelson's Column.

He has to run faster to make up for slowing down.

He thinks he might not be able to slow down again.

He runs through Gotham and Robin is frozen in mid-air. In Smallville, Kon is in bed and his eyes are shut so he's probably sleeping but it hurts too much to wait to see if he is. Cissie, Cassie and Greta are sleeping too. He passes through Birmingham and Carol is reading a letter he sent her last week. He writes another one, explaining where he's gone, and leaves it beside her. It's weird to think he'll probably be dead before she finishes reading whatever word she's looking at.

The world is starting to change around him, now. He can hear voices.

He's going to miss his friends but it hurts too much to stay. Every moment of trying to move at their speed sends screaming pain through him and nobody seems to be able to understand that he was _born_ to move at light speed and the idea of only having sixty seconds in a minute is never going to make sense.

So he puts his head down and he accelerates that tiny bit more until he   
runs right out of the world.


End file.
